Monday, August 27, 2012

Guess What This Glitzy Console Table Used to Be!

I'm back! It has been a crazy, exciting, busy, and overwhelming week. I had no idea when I posted my tire ottoman last week, that a week later I would be chatting with people from Iowa to India, responding to magazines, learning more about the tire recycling initiative than I ever thought I would want to know, and starting a product line.

Through all of that, I just had to finish my latest "That Was A What?!" project. I'm starting to believe that the best full body massage has nothing on the sheer sense of relaxation I get from sanding and painting a piece of wood (as long as I don't start sweating...I hate sweating). So, anyway, a few months ago (okay, several months ago--I recall a Christmas tree being in the corner) I decided to do a wall of black and white photos.

I love how it brought that blank wall to life, and I did it on the cheap, so I love it even more (Dollar Store frames, custom mats from online, Walgreen's photo printing). As much as I loved the way it turned out, I still felt like something was missing. I thought about installing some can lights above the photos to light the wall, but that would require cutting and electrical stuffamajig. So, I settled on lamps. Only problem was I needed something for the lamps to sit on. I needed a CONSOLE TABLE!

The wall where I have the photos leads from the family room into the kitchen, and with the couch floating in the middle of the room the walk space is pretty narrow, so I needed a skinny table. I searched online and fell in love with this table by Restoration Hardware:

But, the price is listed at $1195-$1395. Yes, thousands. No, I don't think so. I do love it though. And the top of the table reminded me of some closet doors I had in my first college apartment. Could I, would I, should I...make the console table out of closet doors???

I could and I did! Wrote a story 'bout it, wanna hear it...here it go (yes, that's my homage to Calhoun Tubbs, In Living Color, circa 1992):

1) Headed over to this salvage door place in Midtown Atlanta that I pass every week on my way to White Provisions for the best shrimp po' boy in Atlanta. Got a set of bifold closet doors. The sales guy said $35, I said $25. I was thinking more like $10, but $25 is still less than $1195-$1395. They were too long, and hollow, but the guy offered to cut them down to the size I needed, added wood pieces to fill in the hollow gaps, and sanded the ends back down. So, I guess I got my $25 worth.

2) Went home, sanded those bad boys down, primed them, and painted them gray. They looked really dull, and I could just hear them telling me, "Nikki, we want to be fabulous, we want to shine, darling!" So I grabbed the bottle of Valspar Metal and Patina glaze I had left over from another project:

Those doors knew I was about to do something special to them! I could tell they knew they would never be the same.

They ended up like this:

3) For the legs, I went on Craigslist and started searching for those curvy, chunky legs that are on the Restoration Hardware table. After finding nothing by the description of "curvy, chunky legs" (at least nothing that I wanted anything to do with...happily married, thank you very much), I did some Googling and learned that they're called balustrades. So, I went back to Craigslist and searched for balustrades, and Plah-Dow! A guy had a porch railing with eight balustrades he was selling for $35. Of course I said, "$35! Good lawd, that's a lotta money." But he wasn't budging and $35 divided by 8 comes out to be only $4.38 per balustrade, and $35 is still less than $1195-$1395, so I got them.

4) Took them home to my man and asked him to pry the balustrades from the rail. Here they are free from bondage--sanded, painted and glazed:

﻿﻿﻿﻿

5) Time to put Ms.Thang together!

Liquid Nails went on top and bottom of each balustrade.

6) And here she is all put together:

﻿7) And a few shots with her all dressed up:

I love the imperfections in the corner leg!

Can't have any unsightly lamp cords showing.

Fancy, Fancy!

And that, my friends, is the story of how closet doors became a console. So, whaddya think?

Oh, yea, here's the cost breakdown:

Doors-$25
Balustrades-$17.52 (I used 4 at $4.38 each; 4 left for another table or something)

Beautiful!!! LOVE IT!! It is much better than the expensive one! I have the perfect spot in my house for a console table like this (or I will when my new house is finished). Thanks for the inspiration!!

OMG ... Nikki I absolutely love this idea. I have some neat banister bobs that would look awesome on the back corners of the top shelf. I think I might just make a run to our local Habitat for Humanity store next week and find me some doors and rails to put something like this together for our dining room. We too do not have a lot of room on the width so something narrow and long like this would be absolutely perfect!

You really got my brain going into overtime and thinking how I could make another table (not as long and a bit wider) to match for the narrow wall in our dining room under my antique clock. I think doing tables like this and making them look antique in a nice maple matt finish will go beautifully in my dining room. Thank you so much for sharing this idea. :)

I do not know that having written instructions will work for me as I am a hands on person. Why didn't you do this as a tutorial instead of an e-book. I do not want to download anything onto my computer and shouldn't have to. I have purchased tutorials all the time and did not have this problem. The e-book you sold me was damage or not decoded is what the error was saying. I want what I paid for and hope no one else has this problem. I do not want to leave my e-mail address here. You can comment on LuLu to give me an address to send it to.Brenda

Hi Brenda,Sorry again for the technical problems you experienced through Lulu. Lulu does require Adobe Digital for its eBooks, so if you do not have the program it would have to be downloaded.

The instructions that are in the eBook are the same that were posted on the blog and include step-by-step directions as well as pictures, so it serves the same purpose as a video tuturiol (minus the pausing).

I'll be happy to send you a PDF or DOC version of the eBook since you would prefer not to download the required program. You can email me at nikkimanifests@gmail.com.

love it..I wouldn't have the patience to put it together but I do love..and, love the great tip about the cords; I always wondered how people did that ! no lie :) I can't stand to see cords either so I shall have to do that in my craft room.

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Hi Nikki,I love your ideas and the console table is a great way to make an odd sized table! I especially like that everything is affordable for real people. It is so frustrating to see design shows/blogs that claim to have affordable ideas and have no idea what that actually means. Thank you!

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About Me

So who am I? I'll be the tall girl you'll see at the thrift shop, home improvement store, garage sale, and yes dumpster...with a ruler in my pocket and my head tilted ever so slightly to the left, trying to imagine how I can transform that regular, everyday whatchamajiggit into my next home decor object of wonderfulness.